When the dollars didn’t add up to be able to keep a handful of key contributors to back-to-back Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams, the Capitals went bargain hunting to sign bought-out winger Devante Smith-Pelly, who general manager Brian MacLellan termed a ”project.” Up against the cap at the trade deadline, they acquired lightly used defenseman Michal Kempny from Chicago.

”Some of the best acquisitions are ones that are under the radar, ones that fit almost seamlessly,” coach Barry Trotz said. ”Some of the best deals that we’ve made are those ones that, even myself I’m like, `Hmm, that’s a little bit of an upgrade, not a big one.’ And they ended up being the biggest upgrades because they’re not sexy names.”

Kempny said ”probably nobody knew my name when I came here or played in Chicago,” and Smith-Pelly had his name on the back of three other NHL teams’ jerseys before this season. Now they’re key pieces for a team one win from the Stanley Cup after the Capitals hit on exactly the kind of moves every championship contender is looking to make.

All it cost was a one-year deal at the league minimum to sign Smith-Pelly after he was bought out by the Devils, and a third-round pick to get Kempny from the Blackhawks. Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby have led Washington to this point http://www.vikingsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-brian-o_neill-jersey , up 3-1 on the Vegas Golden Knights with the chance to raise the Cup after Game 5 on Thursday night. But they wouldn’t be here without the contributions of Smith-Pelly and Kempny.

After a seven-goal regular season, Smith-Pelly has six goals in the playoffs, including potential series daggers in Games 3 and 4 of the final. This isn’t exactly where the 25-year-old thought he’d be just under a year ago when he found out a minute before the buyout deadline that the Devils were cutting him.

”You only get so many chances to stick,” said Smith-Pelly, a 2010 second-round pick who bounced from Anaheim to Montreal to New Jersey, never putting up more than 17 points in a season. ”I knew that this could be my last one, so I kind of took the buyout personally and listened to what the coaching staff had to say and what they wanted, and just went out there and did it.”

Smith-Pelly wasn’t even guaranteed a roster spot when he signed. He developed into a teammate on and off the ice that helped propel the Capitals to another division title despite losing forwards Justin Williams, Marcus Johansson and Daniel Winnik, and defensemen Nate Schmidt, Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk last summer. He was the Capitals’ Masterton Trophy nominee for perseverance and dedication to hockey after taking an incident of racist ”basketball, basketball, basketball” taunts and turning it into a positive when he facilitated money be donated to Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Washington.

”What happened was obviously pretty negative http://www.raidersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-p.j.-hall-jersey ,” Smith-Pelly said. ”But for the people of Chicago to feel that they needed to donate money and for me to give it to Fort Dupont I thought turned a pretty bad thing into something that could change many kids’ lives in that area.”

Smith-Pelly always seems to find the positive. He brushed off a puck to the face at the morning skate Monday and scored a back-breaking goal that night.

Kempny has done the same. Stepping on a puck during pregame warmups led to a spill and stitches across the bridge of his nose, but the 27-year-old missed no time. He then pumped in a Game 4 goal that helped put the Capitals on the verge of winning the Cup.

It’s the latest impact Kempny has made on his new team after fitting in as a top-four defenseman alongside John Carlson.

”He played big minutes against top players, be it the (Evgeni) Malkins and the (Sidney) Crosbys, and he’s done a really good job,” Trotz said.” He’s just one of those players that is effective – efficient, effective, gets it done. You’re not going to see a lot of offense. He’s got some great looks, though. You talk about a guy who’s developing maybe from more of a stay-at-home type of defenseman to a guy who recognizes opportunity.”

This is the opportunity Kempny had been waiting for after being a third-pairing defenseman with the Blackhawks, and sometimes a healthy scratch. Coach Joel Quenneville wasn’t a fan, so the Capitals made a deal arguably more meaningful than Evander Kane to San Jose, Paul Stastny to Winnipeg, or Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to Tampa Bay.

”Adding Kempny helped a lot,” MacLellan said. ”I think we had him projected right. He’s a good skater Josh Hader Milwaukee Brewers Jersey , a good puck mover. I know he was not always in the lineup in Chicago, but he was our No. 1 target going into the trade deadline.”

Carlson watched video of Kempny’s games to get an understanding of his new defense partner. Kempny had to regain his confidence after feeling like the ”last warm body on the bench.”

”When you are not playing, you can’t be a better player. It’s impossible,” Kempny said. ”I never played in Chicago against top lines. I didn’t know if I could play against them or not. But I got a chance here, so I proved to myself that I can play against top lines.”

The Capitals have shown they can play against and beat anyone, with Smith-Pelly and Kempny proving to be perfect pieces for a team eying a championship.

”Everything’s worked out very well,” Smith-Pelly said. ”If we end up winning, that would b Flyers fans spent the final minutes of another empty season doing what boorish fans do with elimination on deck. They chucked beer cans and threw trash and hats and whatever objects were within reach onto the ice. Flyers public address announcer Lou Nolan admonished fans – just as he had two years earlier when giveaway bracelets were hurled on the ice – but there was little anyone could do to stop them.

This is how the season ends in Philly, not with a Stanley Cup hoisted in a championship celebration, but with a call for the cleaning crew to pick up the mess.

The Eagles, Phillies and 76ers have all won championships – along with Villanova, the Arena Football League’s Soul, and Philly horse Smarty Jones – since the Flyers last won back-to-back Cups in 1974 and 1975.

The only banners raised to the rafters are for retired numbers or a Hall of Fame entry.

The Flyers’ season ended with an 8-5 loss in Game 6 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Flyers haven’t reached the second round since 2012 and haven’t played in the Cup finals since 2010. Under third-year coach Dave Hakstol, this season’s berth was considered a mild surprise, especially when the team lost 10 straight games in November/December and all seemed lost.

”We came into this playoff series and into (Game 6) very confident that we could not only take this series to a seven-game series, but also win the series,” Hakstol said. ”We didn’t do that so we came up short. There’s one season that ultimately is successful, and obviously we didn’t accomplish that this year. There are a lot of real positives that we’re going to be able to go back and evaluate.”

The Flyers clearly aren’t in the class of the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins. The Flyers and Penguins are often touted as one of the NHL’s fiercest rivalries. The truth is, the Flyers are nothing to the Penguins but a pesky gnat easily swatted away and quickly forgotten.

There’s talent in Philly. But enough to win a championship? That’s for general manager Ron Hextall to assemble in the offseason and the years ahead.

Here are more things to know as the Flyers head into a long offseason:

HAKSTOL’S FUTURE

Hakstol, a shocking pick to coach the Flyers out of the college ranks, has led the Flyers to two playoff berths in three seasons but not much else. Angry Flyers fans chanted ”Fire Hakstol! Fire Hakstol!” in the playoffs and he’s aware the fans at least want him on the hot seat. But Hakstol and Hextall are tight – Hextall’s son, Brett, played for Hakstol at North Dakota. And there’s little reason to think the GM is going to acknowledge his biggest gamble was also his biggest bust of a move. Hakstol had a reputation from developing young players and there are enough on the roster to merit at least one more season.

”It took a lot of young guys growing throughout the year to be able to put together the stretch run that we did have,” he said. ”At the end of the day, we didn’t come into this playoff series to make steps though. We came in to win the series.”

Giroux is the last player left from the `10 finals team and had just one goal and two assists in the playoffs.

”We’re gonna keep building here and we’re going to come off strong next year,” Giroux said.

The Flyers could look to Nolan Patrick, the No. 2 overall pick of the 2017 draft, to play a more pivotal role next season.

WHO’S NO. 1

Look no further than Philadelphia’s usual unsettled goaltending to understand why the franchise has gone 42 years without a championship. The Flyers signed former Calgary goalie Brian Elliott to a $5.5 million, two-year deal and he was a bust in the playoffs. Michal Neuvirth and mid-season pickup Petr Mrazek weren’t true No. 1s, either.

The 28 goals scored by the Penguins set a new Flyers franchise record for goals against in a six-game series. It tied the franchise record for goals against in any length of series, joining the 1979 New York Rangers team that scored 28 in a five-game series win.

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